Never been to a small town

Please Stop Marrying Fictional Characters to People They Met as Children, It’s Creepy.

There is a point there. However, in works it’s more the need for narrative parsimony and plain authorial laziness.

But…one can tell the writer of the piece has never lived in a small town. Where I grew up (Lake City, FL, for the curious) about 20-30% of the people married someone they’d known since kindergarten.

So yeah. Happens still in the real world. All the damn time.

Just not in large urban areas where more people move around frequently.

If I’d stayed in that town, might’ve been me too.